


drop to dust

by BoxOnTheNile



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Asthmatic Roadhog, Character Study, Hanahaki Disease, M/M, Non-Linear Narrative
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-21
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-10-08 15:44:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10390191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoxOnTheNile/pseuds/BoxOnTheNile
Summary: ii.It takes Roadhog days after he realizes what he has to realize he should be angry.  This shouldn't even be a problem, shouldn't be possible, because he's emptied himself of everything but survival and murder, but some kid has ruined that.Mako Rutledge has experience with things like love, but Mako Rutledge is long dead. He died in the sparks and smoke of burned chemical equations.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Flowers Like Ashes](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9876062) by [NoirSongbird](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NoirSongbird/pseuds/NoirSongbird). 



> Vague references to personal headcanon.

i.  
Junkrat is bathed in fire and blood, surrounded by carnage and smoke. His eyes shine with anger and adrenaline and he’s _alive_ , the brightest thing in this dead, barren place, and Roadhog can't imagine life without him anymore. 

The coughing starts soon after.

Roadhog’s lungs have always been weird and shitty, so he doesn't think much of it. But then, he stops smelling sweat and leather. It's cleaner, somehow, and he tastes something bitter. 

He never put much stock in fairytales: the childhood stories of spurned lovers coughing flowers until their affection was returned or they died. But _hanahaki_ isn't a myth, can't be, because there's no other explanation for the crushed blossoms on his tongue. 

Lilacs don't even grow in the Outback. 

 

iv.  
It's Hanzo that notices first. 

Roadhog thought he was alone, gripping the edges of the sink as his lungs seized and forced flowers out his mouth, but powerful hands rub at his back, grounding him until the fit is over and he gasps for greedy lungfuls of air. 

There is no judgement in Hanzo’s eyes as Roadhog scrapes lilacs from the ceramic to hide. It won't be hard, Gibraltar is ringed by lilac bushes in all colors, and they seem to bloom unnaturally long.

“Do you know what they mean?” the archer asks at long last. 

“White lilacs,” Roadhog answers flatly. “Youth and joy.”

Hanzo nods. “Mine were chuparosa.”

 

 

ii.  
It takes Roadhog days after he realizes what he has to realize he should be angry. This shouldn't even be a problem, shouldn't be possible, because he's emptied himself of everything but survival and murder, but some kid has ruined that. 

Mako Rutledge has experience with things like love, but Mako Rutledge is long dead. He died in the sparks and smoke of burned chemical equations. 

 

v.  
Roadhog hasn't had an asthma attack since they joined Overwatch. He rarely takes the mask off anymore, and the air inside the watchpoint is run through four different filters.

But Junkrat is enamored with the green growing in the Spanish sunshine, and Roadhog is wrapped around his goddamn finger, so the mask is sitting on his nightstand in his quarters while D.Va and Lucio try to teach Junkrat to weave daisies into a crown. 

There's a pang in his chest as it tightens, and Roadhog sucks in a breath. He knows he has to breathe deep.

The coughing starts, and at first, it's just his asthma, but then there's a familiar sensation of something sliding up his trachea.

It's too wet, but he can't get enough air, so focuses on breathing, in and out. In and out.

The lilacs that drop from his lips are more red than white.

 

iii.  
The infection spreads slow, tempered by the healing gas he breathes as often as he can. But hanahaki is based is magic, and science can only slow it for so long. 

He swallows the little white blossoms when he can- some half remembered thing about lilacs being technically edible. He doubts Junkrat even knows what hanahaki is, and can never quite find the words to explain, so just coughing them up is out of the question. 

Still, he promised to protect the scrawny Junker, and there's only two ways ‘Rat will be safe: with Roadhog, or out of Australia. The first won't be an option much longer, so he offers the second without explaining why.

And when Junkrat’s eyes light up like that, there's no turning back.

 

 

vi.  
Junkrat slinks into the infirmary and frowns, unhappy. Roadhog thinks he can understand why.

“Mercy says ya won't cut the flowers out. Lucio and Hanzo explained what that meant for you.” The ‘Rat’s brow furrows. “Why the fuck would you let yourself die like this?”

Roadhog glances at the bloody blossoms gathered on the bedside table. “I didn't think I could feel anything anymore. And now, I don't think I can give it it up.”

Junkrat lunges onto the bed to grasp Roadhog’s face in his hands. “Who are they for? I'll find ‘em, I'll make them love you, Hog, I can't lose ya-”

Roadhog kisses him, softly, with a tenderness he thought was lost to him.

Junkrat pulls back and blinks, whispers, “oh.” Then, _”oh,”_ and dives in with the same enthusiasm he gives everything. The joints of his prosthetic pull Roadhog hair, but he doesn't care.

Somewhere in his lungs, a flower wilts.


End file.
